Short ride to gas station today, noticed the Trophy didn’t want to lay over or stay down there on the curves. The tires, Michelin Pilot Road GT, have 7,000 miles on them and they are done. These tires spent a week in May in Smokey Mountains running the twisties, probably about 1200 miles and the rest normal riding. The tires taken off before these were the same tires, except they lasted 11,000 miles. The prior tires were ridden across the U S from Pittsburgh to San Diego and back. The ride was probably 50/50 super slab versus two lane roads and was 7,000 miles of the 11,000 mile total and the rest was just normal riding. This seems to mean go straight it you want to get good tire mileage. I guess I’m asking is this normal tire life. Try to keep tire pressures a “psi” or two over what the manual says.

When commuting 200 miles each week to and from Bristol on 99.5% motorway, I managed to get 12,000 miles out of a pair of Michelin Pilot Road GTs. When the commute was only 80 miles, but about 40% of that was A roads, with roundabouts, and a fair bit of single carriageway with overtaking opportunities (if you were on the ball), I get just 6,000 miles.Interestingly, the front tyres needed changing first when getting the bigger mileage out of them, but they both needed changing at the same time on the lower mileage.

Most tire manufacturers are now utilizing a dual compound tread on their rear tires. The center tread is constructed of a much harder rubber to encourage long life. The front tire, and sides of the rear tire consist of a softer compound to ensure proper grip on curves, and in the rain.

Therefore, higher mileage on Straightaways on rear tires, with the front tire wearing out first, and poorer mileage on rear tires on the Twistys, with both wearing out simultaneously.